John Hollar's murder proves you can't count on the public to step up

Ron Gabruck, the security chief for the Edmonton Transit System (ETS), said it without an iota of sarcasm or criticism.

“We can’t assume the public was going to step up,” he said. “They hadn’t so far. And probably with good reason; they were probably intimidated.”

Mr. Gabruck was discussing the circumstances that led his people last Friday to decide that it was better to keep a commuter train moving to the next station, three minutes away, than to halt it in its tracks at the first available one — even though there was a vicious assault going on in the last car.

The beating ended up being fatal — 29-year-old Jonny Hollar died two days later in hospital — and the ETS decision controversial.

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The unprovoked attack upon Mr. Hollar began about a minute after the train left the Coliseum station about 1:50 that afternoon. The motorman learned of it when a passenger activated the emergency alarm, which immediately brought up on his console both a video screen of what was happening in the car and audio of the screaming that was going on.

The next stop was Belvedere station.

In communication with the system’s control centre, the motorman followed standard operating procedure and opened the doors when the train arrived.

Usually, Mr. Gabruck said, at this time of day the doors would stay open only for 10 seconds or so. But this day, they were open for at least half a minute. What usually happens in such a situation — where there’s a fight on a train, or a crime going on, and the motorman has made announcements that the police have been called, as was the case here — and what transit officials expected would happen again is that the assailant or guilty party flees.

But that didn’t happen.

The ETS had no security people at Belvedere and officials couldn’t count on passengers stepping in

The only people left in the car were Mr. Hollar and the man who was still attacking him. It’s doubtful that the motorman, with that video screen in front of him and the chaos ringing in his ears, or those in the control room would have been able to tell from the video how seriously injured Mr. Hollar was.

Transit officials weighed the hard choices: Keep the doors open and wait for help to arrive, or shut the doors and continue on for another three minutes to the Clareview station.

But they knew, already, there was no immediate help at Belvedere.

At this station, there’s also a regular train crossing; there was a blocked intersection and a backup of traffic. And transit control also knew there were no ETS security personnel at the station.

There was, three minutes away at Clareview.

This station also has easier platform access for emergency responders, is physically closer to an ambulance hall Mr. Gabruck said, and transit control knew they had an inspector there, ready to take charge.

“The assumption [behind some of the criticism directed at ETS] is that by staying at Belvedere, help was there,” Mr. Gabruck told Postmedia Wednesday in a phone interview. “But we knew it wasn’t.”

Police across the country regularly give the same wise counsel to the public: Don’t step in; don’t resist if someone is robbing you; don’t put up a fight

It was in this context that he made, in his very even voice, the remark about not being able to count on the public: The ETS had no security people at Belvedere and officials couldn’t count on passengers stepping in either to help Mr. Hollar or subdue his attacker because, as Mr. Gabruck rightly noted, no one had so far.

He was not, it should be said, harshly judging the passengers or public. ETS motormen and bus drivers are themselves also advised not to involve themselves in physical altercations.

Everyone these days is so advised.

Police across the country regularly give the same wise counsel to the public: Don’t step in; don’t resist if someone is robbing you; don’t put up a fight.

There were, Mr. Gabruck said, between 10 and 15 passengers on that train that day. Edmonton Police have said that two of them tried to “intervene,” though they have declined to describe what sort of intervention took place. Police had no updates Wednesday.

The quality of transit surveillance video is usually quite good, Mr. Gabruck said, and is usually helpful in court proceedings, where it can be repeatedly played at slow speed, as it probably will be at the trial of Jeremy Newborn, the 29-year-old who was quickly arrested with the help of ETS security at the Clareview station. Little is known about the passengers who fled the car at Belvedere station, or what were their complex reasons for getting out of Dodge, but what is a pretty good bet is this: They are the perfect products of a world where the best advice is to avert your gaze, keep your own safety top of mind and call on the professionals for help. You can’t assume the public will step up: It’s so reasonable, why does it sound like an epitaph?